In case you haven’t been following, analog formats are making a comeback, including vinyl, 8-track, and cassette. Digital music can be cheaply distributed with such ease that CDs are likely on their way out, but the good news is that some bands and labels can now afford to put out the interesting physical formats of yesteryear. As far as cassette is concerned, this isn’t good news for Sonic Youth’s Lee Ranaldo, but Thurston Moore couldn’t be happier.
“Thurston will be happy about that. I won’t,” Ranaldo told CBC radio on Sonic Youth’s forthcoming box set (they call it an “art box”) featuring a cassette of Beck covering their entire EVOL album. “Because I only listen to cassettes,” Moore added. “There’s already a cassette industry but it’s pretty subterranean.”
“Thurston recently bought a cassette duplicating machine so he can manufacture cassettes for his label [Ecstatic Peace!]”
“Cassettes and vinyl are the best sounding formats for me,” said Moore, reacting to Ranaldo and the interviewer’s objections to the .15 inch format. “Oxide tape. Big, fat, normal, bias sound.” On the format being “lo-fi,” Moore added simply, “Turn it up!”